Highball
Which renderer to use
Highball can run each game through three different Direct3D translation layers. This is what the database knows for this title — empty rows are open questions, not failures.
| Renderer | Verdict | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| DXVKDirect3D 9-11 over Vulkan | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| DXMTDirect3D 11 over Metal | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Reported | community reports |
No dated Highball run yet. When one lands it records the renderer, the engine build and the macOS version it was seen on — which is what stops a verdict quietly rotting. Send one.
Notes
Reported playable for an hour on D3DMetal on an M5 Pro with the default engine. The one flaw reported is a picture that does not fill the screen. No frame rate was given and nothing was measured here. D3DM_MTL4 only matters on the GPTK 4 engines, the reporter's r11 carries D3DMetal 3.0.
Provenance
Reported by zlddev (highball-db#266, 2026-09-30), Apple M5 Pro, macOS 27.0.1, Highball 0.9.39, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r11, Apple's DirectX 12 support (D3DMetal) as the environment's mode, rated 4 of 5 after 62 minutes, with msync, AVX advertised, D3DM_ENABLE_METALFX=1 and D3DM_MTL4=1 set, recipes steam and vcrun2022. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered work on Mac?
Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered has no native Mac build, but it is reported to run on Apple Silicon through Highball, a free open-source compatibility layer. This comes from community reports rather than a Highball test run, so treat it as a reasonable expectation rather than a guarantee.
Which renderer should I use for Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered?
D3DMetal. Highball can translate Direct3D through DXVK, DXMT or Apple's D3DMetal, and the right choice varies by game. The database records D3DMetal for Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered. Highball uses it automatically when the game has a row; to set it by hand, open Settings, then Environments.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered on Apple Silicon, working or not, a report takes a minute and fills in the empty rows above. Send a report, or read how the data is put together.